A wild horse requires around 200 acres to find enough forage to survive, maybe more depending on the area. BLM says 1,000 acres (27 million acres ÷ 27,000 horses).
That land may or may not have a source of water.
If a drilling rig requires an acre to set up and operate, you’d have to close 200 of them, maybe as many as 1,000, to allow one wild horse to return to the range.
How many drilling rigs are on HMAs? Enough to allow maybe three wild horses back on the range?
We’re talking about drilling rigs, not completed wells, which might require 100 square feet (0.0023 acre). You’d have to get rid of at least 87,120 of them to put one wild horse back on the range.
Alternatively, if you eliminate public-lands ranching on just one HMA, hundreds of wild horses could come out of long-term holding and back to their home range.
RELATED: Hypothesis Revisited.
Western Horse Watchers Association 